Coming Undone
by shadoedseptmbr
Summary: Fenris gets kidnapped. Hawke comes unglued. Varric writes a cover story.


_Flipping Coins 'verse_

_"She's come undone, la da de da de da de da."_

_Sorry. Um. Well, I'm aware that if Bethany lives, the LI doesn't get kidnapped by Grace and her bunch. But in my version of events, Cullen keeps a better eye on Bethany after the events of Legacy and so the conspiracy goes for the easier mark._

_Bioware owns all, I'm just grateful to play in the sandbox.  
_

**Coming Undone  
**

"Wait. Wait...Who have they taken?" Hawke was trying to bring Keran down from his brief panic attack at the idea that his friends had just truly annoyed the Champion by being stupid enough to think she wouldn't help them conspire against Meredith.

Keran finally calmed enough to tell them. "I don't know. One of your friends. An elf, they said."

Varric glanced at Daisy beside him. Fenris had been injured badly enough against that last blood mage that Hawke had made him stay at the mansion. Then he saw that Aveline was staring at Hawke and he looked, too.

And really, really wished he hadn't.

All the blood had drained from her face, leaving her hard as bone, her eyes like glass. The things he kind of adored about her; the sweetness, the humor, the sparkle in her eye were gone. All those things that Kirkwall hadn't quite stripped from her.

Gone. Leaving nothing but that deep streak of chaotic darkness that she generally kept a pretty good lid on. Most rogues have a fondness for the whirlwind. He'd always said a hero needed a little crazy. Hawke had more than a little, but you didn't usually see it on display.

Keran went white and babbly again

Varric really couldn't blame him.

Her voice, when it came, dropped the temperature in the room like Daisy had called up a blizzard. "Run. If he's dead, you'll never run far enough."

It was the last thing she said for hours.

He doesn't tell the story this way. In his version, Hawke tries to talk the conspirators down. She's gentle and empathetic with Thrask and for a minute it looks like things will work out. Only when that nutcase from Starkhaven, Grace, starts shrieking about betrayal and vengeance and turns Thrask into a fuelsource does Hawke flip the switch and becomes that deadly goddess that she is and wreaks havoc.

In reality, they got to the rendezvous on the Wounded Coast in record time. Hawke stood like stone while Thrask muttered in a monotone about revolution. Varric was pretty sure it was enthrallment, at least, that's how he wanted to remember it. Hawke's eyes though, never left the mage. Before Grace ever opened her mouth, Hawke disappeared into shadow (at noon on a flaming mid-summer day) and reappeared only to drag her daggers across Grace's throat, decapitating her.

In the shit-storm that followed, he didn't see her again. Just bodies dropping until all of them, mage and Templar alike, were dead and she was crouching at Fenris' side. Daisy murmured something about how it was blood magic (in the story, it's the trembly kid, Alain, who wakes Fenris, instead of calling for his mother as he bled out) and Hawke nodded her consent. Daisy nicked her little wrist and cast and Fenris was awake, rolling to his knees, bewildered.

Broody went still at Hawke's quiet words. "The ones responsible for this are dead at your feet." Her voice was like broken glass and she was staring at the ground.

"Thank you." Varric shuddered. This is another thing he leaves underwraps in the long tale of their courtship, how they occasionally referred to dead bodies as if they were love tokens, roses spread out before a lover. The next part he keeps, though.

"Are you all right?" She still had not looked up and Broody's eyes went so gentle and sweet that Daisy sighed next to Varric like her heart had melted.

Fenris cupped his hand around Hawke's jaw and brought her chin up and her eyes finally met his. "Only my pride is injured. And I have better things than that, now."

Then she was in his arms and they were kissing like they'd die without it and... well, Varric will fade to black for the Seeker's sake. He went to check on Aveline who looked like she was grinding her teeth so hard a few of them probably crumbled later. It took a while to drag Daisy away from the spectacle. He's pretty sure she took notes to share with Rivani, though.

A few minutes later, after Aveline wrote down the names of the Templars for the death report, they started down the trail. Hawke and Fenris caught up to them just before the Knight-Captain showed up. Hawke didn't need Varric, she just spun a tale with wide, innocent eyes about how the blood mages had used enthrallment and blood control and had mostly done each other in.

Cullen was pretty sharp. Varric was fairly sure he didn't buy the story, but so long as the Knight-Captain had something for his report and he didn't have to arrest Sunshine's sister, he was happy.

The Templars went to burn their dead and Hawke let the innocent mask slip to vague embarrassment and a weak grin. "Um. Thank you for staying with me." She sighed. "Since I don't actually recall if I asked or not."

They continued along the path for a while. Daisy was in the lead while Varric unobtrusively kept her from leading them into a spider's nest or off a cliff. After a mile or so, Aveline stopped grumbling to herself and dropped back to walk beside Hawke. Varric heard Fenris cough. "I believe we have taken a wrong turn." He walked away from the two women pretty quickly for a lyrium-enhanced killing machine.

Aveline didn't pull any punches. "Hawke. This was a bad day's work."

Hawke nodded. "I know. But, in my defense," she waved behind her, "blood mages."

The Guard-Captain grimaced. "You were not yourself. People died today who could have been brought in to face justice."

"I know." No quip that time.

"If this...these were Templars, Hawke. Not bandits. This can't happen again." And Varric marked that down as proof of how much Aveline wanted to protect Hawke, that she let it happen once.

They had pulled up, letting the others go on ahead. As Varric rounded the curve, he saw Hawke nod.

Aveline stressed. "It can't. I would have to stop you."

Hawke answered bleakly. "Whatever is left of me would want you to."

-000-

_Yeah, I don't think Aedan would handle Fenris' kidnapping well at all, at all._


End file.
